This invention relates to transport of copy sheets in a copier or printer, and more particularly, to a system for rotating sheets as they are traveling vertically on a transport apparatus.
When documents that are size A3 or 11".times.17" are placed onto the platen of some copiers for reduction copies to be made from the documents onto smaller sized copy sheets (e.g., 81/2".times.11"), the copy sheets must be rotated 90.degree. before they receive images from the documents.
Systems in the past have been able to rotate materials for different reasons by the use of costly, cumbersome and complicated mechanisms and devices. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,190,413 and 2,190,416 show a ball-on-belt transport that provides 90.degree. rotation of paper in a folding machine. A ball track is included that appears to be primarily a guide, with the actual rotation of a paper being caused by a shoulder which the paper strikes as it moves along the belt of the transport system. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,445,116 front feed equipment for facilitating the feeding of sheet metal into the cutting area of shear equipment is shown that teaches rotating a piece of metal by selectively adjusting the pressure applied between a plurality of rollers and balls. German Pat. No. 1,103,356 is directed to a device for conveying and at the same time aligning individual sheets along an aligning guide using a conveyor belt which is inclined slightly with respect to the direction of paper travel and has a number of feeding moving spheres in cages. The heretofore mentioned sheet transport systems do not appear to be adaptable to the rotation of sheets in a copier due to their bulkiness, complicated mechanisms and cost.